Who knew that one of the most valuable traits dogs have is that they can’t read, but that’s the way Kari Dawn Kolander sees it and she has her reasons.

Kolander is children’s librarian at the Ruidoso Public Library, which has just launched its very busy summer reading season.

One of its fixtures will occur every Tuesday and Wednesday from 12:30 to 2:30, when there will be at least one dog at the library, and sometimes more than one, whose job will be to listen to children read aloud.

“This is a wonderful way to help develop reading skills,” Kolander said, “because us adults have a tendency to correct young ones when they reading out loud, that’s our nature.”

Dogs never do that, she said.

“A dog doesn’t know how to read,” Kolander explained. “That gives the young reader a real sense of ownership over what’s happening. I am reading, and I’m not being corrected. And look, this dog is actually listening to me.”

This is the third year the library has invited dogs inside to be read to. Kolander said starting up the program was an easy sell to the library’s youth services director, Cheryl Volosin, a dog lover herself has made dogs welcome in the past just because they add to the comfortable and accepting atmosphere the library strives for.

When she and Kolander heard of programs at other libraries that used dogs to encourage reading, they immediately saw its potential.

Kolander said the first dog listeners here were Sadie and Cooper, a pair of fluffy keeshonds owned by Pam Skinner of Ruidoso, who had been bringing them to the library for years.

“She would pop up here for pre-school story time,” Kolander said. “We heard about the idea of reading to the dogs and we said let’s see if it works.”

Other dog owners joined the fun. Sadie and Cooper are still in the mix and still can’t read. A pair of Yorkshire terriers are also regulars, Kolander said, one of which will “crawl right up in the kids’ laps.”

On Wednesday there was also a young Labradoodle named Sugar, whose owner Pat Northington said she had recently completed therapy dog training and took to the library work immediately.

Kolander said using dogs as listeners can be helpful to readers of all ages.

“Even for little ones who can’t read,” she said. “They just pick up the book and tell a story to the dog by the pictures. Or we also have books that are just pictures for them to use.”

Older kids who read at higher grade levels also like it.

“They took their chapter books and just sat down and read a page or two,” she said.

One of the attractions was a special addition to Kolander’s patented reader rewards program of desirable trinkets. Anybody who read to a dog Wednesday got a necklace.

“Some of them went back two or three times,” she said, “but they only got a necklace the first time.”